Henny Pennyism or new snake oil merchants

I have been ruminating of late about the theme of the web 2.0 ers who believe the programs - Google docs, flickr, podcasts and wiki sharing, etc.and etc. - are the saviour of mankind and everyone, but everyone, should know about the riches therein. They must know, they can be taught how, it is the future.

I have a sense of deja vu. I recall in the dim past, the mid 1990s, that everyone would have to have a computer or be left waay behind; $millions must be spent on the latest information superhighway or the institution will be shunned; all customers will HAVE to use the internet or be unable to bank, and the most perfect illustrations of hyperbole and/or spin, there will be no more libraries with books and there will be paperless offices.

While it is acknowledged that institutions like ours have invested heavily in IT infrastructure, it is in the latter years, post 2000 that the investments have been worth it. In the earlier years, the money spent may as well have been made into wedding confetti as that infrastucture then, that would save the institution from irrelevance, has been mothballed. If you think I am kidding, look at the mission statements and planning and budget documents of institutions, private or public, major or minor, in 1995-2000 ish.

Everywhere there were conversations about the end of the world in 2000 and PEOPLE STOCKED UP ON FOOD (non perishable).

The plethora of courses, exhortations and fundamentalist type hype for the essentiality of the new internet society, is making me suspicious. I love new things, I just think they are a wonderful addition to the old things.

I love web 2.0 and I shall be eternally grateful that I was encouraged/ required to do the 23 Things program. I have learnt to do magic and I am happy to practise my new tricks forever and unlike most magicians, pass my tricks on to anyone who stands still long enough to listen to me. But most of all,I have found in a few short weeks, that the future is the safe hands of our young colleagues. Blogging has reinforced, if I ever needed it, that the young are witty, wise, funny, passionate, ironic and just as all wise people before them, do not fall for spin.